April 6, 2011

Wait... you're giving us money to be nerds?

So, unbeknownst to us, there are organizations out there who believe in nerds... nay, even encourage nerds. (Andrew's Note: And she's not talking about the Star Trek Voyager Fan Society of Lower East Texas (S.T.V.F.S.L.E.T.)) And while I'd like to think that Andrew and I aren't all that nerdy, evidence it seems, points to the contrary.

When Andrew and I asked ourselves that question, we thought that spending a few weeks in England might just be the ticket. But the specifics are where things get just a little embarrassing.

It's like we just got into nerd college

Lets back up a bit, to December: Andrew and I wrote a grant. Specifically for an organization called Fund for Teachers http://www.fundforteachers.org/. And.... we got it! We have been awarded $10,000 (!!!) to travel to the U.K. in July for about three weeks to study early music and hear concerts by some of the world's top performers of early music. (Early music, by the way, is music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras for the most part...about ~800 - 1750 AD. We particularly like Medieval and Renaissance music but we didn't want Baroque to feel left out)

Andrew..... write something here that sounds more coherent about the grant and all. Take this out too.

(Well. We'll be going to London for 5 days to attend parts of the City of London Festival www.colf.org, which is an arts and culture festival all around the city with TONS of concerts. We haven't bought tickets to many yet, but they're great stuff and played by the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra. Not too shabby. Up next is the main part of our trip - we'll spend 9 days in York for the York Early Music Festival http://www.ncem.co.uk/?idno=228. This is one of the biggest early music festivals in the world and York happens to be a preserved Medieval town. Pretty awesome. The groups that are going to be there performing are pretty much who I let my choir/band listen to when I want to give them the best example of...anything. I'm most excited about The Sixteen, one of the best early choral groups in the world. Anyway, next is Oxford University where we'll spend a few days looking at the Bate Collection, the largest early musical instrument collection in Great Britain.

AND (I promise this is not why we did this trip) WE WILL BE IN LONDON FOR THE PREMIER OF THE LAST HARRY POTTER MOVIE!!! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

So, the last few weeks we have been booking hotel rooms and going over our itenerary... fun times, fun times. In fact, this experience has reminded me that I would make a very good travel agent, perhaps I missed my calling. You know you'd want me planning your trip, every minute of every day would be scheduled to the minute, and if you were late, you'd get push ups... oh wait, that's my band kids, my bad. (No, no...it would be you.)

So this July, when you get bored reading this blog, never fear!...there will now be two Redmon blogs, this one, and the more academically astute one (ha, who are we kidding.) In fact, if you want a sneak peak at the new blog, we'll give you the address. But just know that it won't officially be "ready" until mid June.

The grant even provides for a fancy new laptop, video camera and 5-week-long-never-have-to-wash underwear for us as a team (I'm not doing that). We'll be using the aforementioned list (minus the underwear) to document our highly exciting times in England. When we return, our respective bands (and choir) will do a combined band concert (collaborative nerd alert!) which will feature early music.

As for Chile and Won Ton, I'm going to go ahead and take this moment to cordially ask my beautiful sister Lindsey (Hooray!!!) if she would like to house sit for the month of July. Remember that birthday post I wrote about you?? Remember that time I threw up on you over the bunk bed when we were in elementry school??